Last Day of MDO

Can you believe it?? Where did the time go?? Today was Jillian's last day of MDO. They had an end of the year celebration today and her class did a presentation of the Itsy, Bitsy Spider. She was the STAR!!! (of course!!) She really is the only one doing the motions with the song. WARNING: The video is a bit shaky so don't watch if you suffer from motion sickness. Ha ha!!

Mrs. Debbie created a cute poster of Jesus and his children with the 1s and 2s pictures. I thought it turned out so cute!!!! Jillian is second on the right.

Afterwards, they celebrated with cupcakes. That's Jillian with Ryan and Alli and one of the twins Nathan or Stephen (I can't tell them apart).

This is Jillian's best bud, Jake. (or as Daddy and Poppy call him - Jake the Snake) He obviously was enjoying the cupcakes!!

This is the famous Mrs. Debbie. Jillian adores her.

Rocco crashed the party!! He wanted to see what school was all about!!

That's Jillian teaching Rocco about Jesus!

When they got home, the kids crashed. Rocco didn't even make it out of the stroller.

Breaking News!!

He didn't beat his sister but at 17 weeks 5 days old.............



Rocco has a TOOTH!!!!



Bottom middle left to be exact (which is exactly the same as Jillian).



I realize this is not the best picture. I will try to get a better one but it is obviously a difficult task.


Here is the record holder!!! Jillian gets to keep her title "The Teeth Freak." She earned this nickname as she got about 8 eight teeth by 6 months and had almost all of her teeth by 1 year. This was Jillian at 14 weeks 3 days with her first tooth.







It looks like Rocco will likely be following in the same footsteps. Poor Mommy (if you know what I mean - Ha ha)!!!!!

Beach Vacation Without the Beach

We went to Port Aransas for the Memorial Day Weekend. I have been every summer since I have been born, so I am trying to keep the tradition going with my own kids.

The moral of the weekend story is this.........travelling with two kids is waaaaaay harder than with one kid.

We started Saturday morning. We loaded up on breakfast tacos and chips and we were off to the races. Everybody was in good moods.

Then everybody (except Bryan) took naps.

Then went to Port A and it started to rain. That didn't stop Jillian and Daddy from having some fun.

Everytime we planned to go to the beach, somebody was sleeping. If Rocco was up, Jillian was napping. If Jillian was up, Rocco was napping. Not as easy as I thought.

The good thing was at the RV park the Pearces were staying at, it had a pool 20 feet from the trailer. So we went to the pool 5 times a day.

Put your bathing suits on!!!

The pool had two levels and Jillian loved jumping from the top to the bottom over the waterfall.

Rocco was NOT impressed with being in the water.

The kids were tuckered out!! I like to think that even in her sleep, Jillian wants to take care of her brother.

Next day, we went swimming again.

Doesn't she look adorable in her bikini????

Once again, we had some tired pups!

Maybe next trip we'll actually make it to the beach. Oh well, we still had fun!!!

A Quick Comparison

I was looking at Jillian's 4 month pictures and comparing. I do see some distinct similarities. Is it possible to have the same eyebrows???

Poor Jillian - she is so alabaster like Mommy. Rocco is lightening up every day but he is still not as white as she is. He definitely has more hair than she did at 4 months.

They definitely share great smiles!!!

I LOVE how their smiles and double chins match!!! I did not plan that!!

MAMMOTH

Here are Rocco's 4 month old stats:

Weight: 17 lbs 9 ozs.
Height: 26 inches
Head: 44 cms

In all catergories, he is in the 90th percentile. Let me repeat, 90th percentile. Where did this alien baby come from??? No wonder I have such a hard time pulling shirts over his head!! Ha ha!!!

Dr. H had nothing but great things to say about Rocco's health and development. He said physically and developmentally Rocco is right on track with a 6 month old (yes, mommy is bragging). He is extremely strong.

All the nurses gooed and gaaed all over him and he ate it up giving them smiles and laughs. Although once he got his three shots, there were no more smiles for the nurses.

As for today, happy 8th anniversary to mommy and daddy!!! The kiddos rewarded us this morning by getting up suuuuuper early...both of them. So sweet that they both thought of us this morning. Ha ha !!!

4 Months Old

It's that time again - my monthly report on Rocco!


Some things are the same:

1. He is big!!
2. He is a very happy, smiley baby.


Some things are different:

1. He has rolled from front to back several times.
2. He is laughing.
3. He has outgrown his 3-6 months clothes.
4. His eyes have changed colors. He no longer has deep blue eyes but some sort of hazely-brown with blue on the edges. They are very hard to describe. They are a really weird color. Maybe they are still changing into something else???
5. He is working so hard on getting a tooth...drool galore and chewing all day long!


So here is my happy baby in my favorite 3-6 outfit. I had to squeeze him into it just one more time for the pictures and then I packed it away. Sigh!!! Why do they grow so fast???









Doesn't that smile just make you happy??

Wearing Purple for a Good Cause

Everybody wore purple today for the March of Dimes Walk. FedEx is a sponser and Bryan is on the committe so we woke up suuuuuuuuper early to get the kids dressed and ready and drive to South SA by 8:00 a.m. start time.

Everybody get loaded up.

Here we go......

Jillian was ready. She had her water, carrots and goldfish. Please note that even her cup is color-coded to match FedEx. (I will get credit someday for how hard I work to coordinate.)

Rocco was not impressed and he was heavy. Wearing him for 3 miles is a gooood work out!!

Jillian fell asleep half-way through the walk so that was great!!

Here we are - we did it!!! Quite sweaty and stinky but we did it!!!

Celebrating my Birthday With a Party for my Mom

Yep! You read the title correctly. Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of my 27th birthday and we celebrated by throwing a retirement party for my mom. Actually, we didn't throw the party. Her friends at her school did but my Mom wanted us at the party to help celebrate. Let's be honest, she did not care if Bryan and I were there, she just wanted to show off the grandkids. But I don't mind as I know they are such cutie-patooties!!! She is throwing in the towel after 33 years of teaching. Whew!!! I don't know how she did it?? That's a long time of teaching Hamlet and Lord of the Flies.

I forgot our camera in the car but my Mom took pictures so I will have to edit this post when I get a hold of her camera.

Otherwise, I did get some really nice gifts. My sister gave me a cute cross necklace. It is extremely heavy so I thought using it as a car decoration was a better idea.

Here is a close up. Every time I get in my car, I will think of my sister. That's nice!

My mom got me a cute pair of capris from Hanna Anderson and a bathing suit.

Why can't I just look like this girl in the bathing suit??? Why is that not a deal when you buy the suit?? I desperately needed a new suit. My nursing-Rocco-body has taken a new shape and my old suits will not hold in the cha-chis, if you know what I am saying?? Really, my new, bigger, giving nourishment to Rocco cha-chis are deserving of a post all to themselves. Ha ha!!!

So happy birthday to me. Thanks to Daon, I realized I share a birthday with the love of her life. She was quite jealous.

I am looking forward to what another year will bring!!!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is fast becoming one of my favorite "holidays." AND not for what you think I will say b/c trust me, (as most of you moms know) it is NOT about me. As cheesy as this is going to sound, having my own kids makes me appreciate my mom so much more and I just love the opportunity it gives me to show my love for my two adorable kiddos.


On Saturday, Jillian is big time into "helping" Mommy. She loves acting like Cinderella so I put that girl to work.


Here she is sweeping




and helping with the laundry.



Then Sunday morning I woke up to two lovely cards - one from Bryan and one from the kids...(I am seriously so in love with the Children's Pl@ce and their matching boy/girl jammies. LOVE them!!!)










Everybody got showered so we could go to church. I took this picture so you could see how my 3 month old son is almost as big as my 2 year old daughter. Geez!!!!

Then we got ready for church.....and let me let you in on a little secret. Yesterday was actually very hard. The kids were NOT cooperating. Both of them did not sleep well Saturday night and they both woke up with snotty noses. Jillian was being Sassy with a capital S and Rocco was unusually cry-ey. So it made getting ready for church excruitatingly painful. However, here are the good shots.

Me and Jillian Avery

Me and Rocco Harrison

This is Jillian throwing her mini-tantrum. "She doesn't want to sit next to Rocco." "She doesn't want to smile." You get the picture.


After she received some bribery aka M&Ms, all smiles again but now Rocco would not smile. Ahhhh!!!! (p.s. before the post is done - I have already had several people ask about their matching outfits and I got them through a catalog called CWDKids.)

So then Rocco started crying and he is not interested in M&Ms, so I gave him what he needed......and

And finally, the best it was going to get yesterday. Cheesy smile from Jillian? Check. Deer in the headlights look from Rocco? Check. Gotta love them!!!!

Finally, thank you to the big B for taking allllllll of these photos and doing his darnedest to get these kiddos to smile. Thanks love.